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Topic: Interview With Canon Executives (Read 10719 times)

DPReview has posted an couple of interviews it has had with Canon executives. Once in late 2013 and another at CP+ last month. Most of the interview is about what you’d expect a Canon executive to say.

On the topic of Smartphones“Realistically, thanks to the global prevalence of smartphones there are more photographs being taken. And as such I anticipate an organic growth of people who are using their smartphone and come to want to take better photographs. Regardless of what device they’re using, whether it’s a smartphone or a compact camera or DSLR, I’d like to encourage people to take more and more pictures.”

On Canon being stagnant or boring
“They may perceive us in that way, but we are incorporating technological innovation into our products. The EOS 70D’s Dual Pixel AF technology is a good example of innovation that is unique to Canon.

Dual Pixel CMOS AF was born out of the concept of allowing the user to freely choose which kind of finder they wanted to use. The optical finder, the camera’s LCD or the screen of a mobile device via our EOS Remote app.”

On 4K video taking over from true still images
“Yes, definitely. There will always be a need for still photographs, in my opinion. I believe that still images contain more information, and have more depth and meaning.”

On the EOS M2 coming to North America or Europe
“It’s a possibility but we haven’t made a final decision yet. We’re looking at the market.”

“They may perceive us in that way, but we are incorporating technological innovation into our products. The EOS 70D’s Dual Pixel AF technology is a good example of innovation that is unique to Canon.

I don't know about any other recent "innovation" from Canon, but the Dual Pixel AF is AWESOME! ... just got the 70D yesterday and I was blown away by how fast it auto focuses by just touching the screen ... there is nothing out there that can accurately auto focus on a touch screen as fast as the 70D (both for stills and video) ... one has to try it to see it.

[GT] Somewhere in the future, maybe the two things might converge but currently with 4K technology you're talking about an 8MP still image, and with 20-30MP stills cameras being the norm I don't know whether 8MP would satisfy someone's needs."

Yes, because an 8MB image from a movie with a shutterspeed of 50 will be blurry... if we could shoot video with 160/250 or even higher shutterspeeds around 1000 or more to freeze action, then it will compete dslrs...

for now we only can take images from a 4k video when the subjects aren't moving, or slowly moving at least.

Yes, because an 8MB image from a movie with a shutterspeed of 50 will be blurry... if we could shoot video with 160/250 or even higher shutterspeeds around 1000 or more to freeze action, then it will compete dslrs...

for now we only can take images from a 4k video when the subjects aren't moving, or slowly moving at least.

Woohoo! Time to play the "take a Japanese Executive's comments out of context game"!!!

Round 1:

"...looking to the future one thing I can say for sure is that the camera has to outperform the human eye... "increasing resolution, sensitivity, dynamic range (my italics, bold and underlining -to prove to doubters that it is coming!) and so on..."...unlimited resolution, unlimited sensitivity and unlimited dynamic range you can take photos of anything that exists on this earth." [Ken-Ichi Shimbori DPReview's CP+ 2014 Canon Interview. Edits have been made for structure and clarity]

Wow, it looks like Canon are working on a new uber-camera that will out perform anything currently available! Never mind these silly wishes of forum members: 36 megapixels? Pah! Put "unlimited" megapixels in your pipe and smoke it! A mere finite ISO 409,600 Nikon? Don't make me laugh. 14.8 Ev dynamic range RED? This new Canon will be able to simultaneously take a picture of the midday sun and the inside a black hole!

Wow, it looks like Canon are working on a new uber-camera that will out perform anything currently available! Never mind these silly wishes of forum members: 36 megapixels? Pah! Put "unlimited" megapixels in your pipe and smoke it! A mere finite ISO 409,600 Nikon? Don't make me laugh. 14.8 Ev dynamic range RED? This new Canon will be able to simultaneously take a picture of the midday sun and the inside a black hole!

You beat me to it!

Anyway, I hope Canon is seriously working towards this goal. They seem to be stuck in some kind of rut these few years...

Wow, it looks like Canon are working on a new uber-camera that will out perform anything currently available! Never mind these silly wishes of forum members: 36 megapixels? Pah! Put "unlimited" megapixels in your pipe and smoke it! A mere finite ISO 409,600 Nikon? Don't make me laugh. 14.8 Ev dynamic range RED? This new Canon will be able to simultaneously take a picture of the midday sun and the inside a black hole!

So, basically close to godly powers.... anything less and its laughable, right?

Why stop there? It will give you X-ray vision and heat/laser vision. Give you super human strength and the ability to fly. All you have to don is a red cape and blue tights.

No, because you can just select the frame you want and it will have sufficient resolution. Now you only need a flash system that does 30 full hss bursts per second and lasts for some hours w/o overheating and power drain :-> ... that's why I'm happy with my 3fps 6d.

No, because you can just select the frame you want and it will have sufficient resolution. Now you only need a flash system that does 30 full hss bursts per second and lasts for some hours w/o overheating and power drain :-> ... that's why I'm happy with my 3fps 6d.

A) I was mocking the resolution based argument the interviewee was making.

B) Plenty of photos are taken without a flash. Last two family events I went to took place outdoors in full daylight, so I didn't even bother taking a flash with me.

C) Flashes like the 320EX solve part of the problem.

So, will still photography be necessary in the age of 4K video? Yes, 4K can eat a nice chunk out of it.

.Most interesting to me was the clear statement that the EOS-M was an "experiment..."

This got me thinking about the complexities of modern manufacturing. Today's market research tools allow companies to hone in on specific audiences for products. No longer do they need a one-size-fits-all approach. Modern manufacturing systems also allow for greater customization and cost-efficient production of products for sub-markets and even sub-sub-markets.

On the other hand, the worldwide communications of the internet and social media make it impossible to market a product in one region or country without the rest of the world knowing about it. And, it is a given that some percentage of the customer case outside of the targeted region is going to want a product that isn't available and feel "cheated" by not getting it, even if there isn't much of a market for it in their region.

In the old days, international companies could produce country-specific products and about the only way anyone knew about them was if they actually visited that country. Not the case anymore. Not trying to make any particular point about the EOS-M, just an observation about manufacturing and marketing in general.

.Most interesting to me was the clear statement that the EOS-M was an "experiment..."

This got me thinking about the complexities of modern manufacturing. Today's market research tools allow companies to hone in on specific audiences for products. No longer do they need a one-size-fits-all approach. Modern manufacturing systems also allow for greater customization and cost-efficient production of products for sub-markets and even sub-sub-markets.

On the other hand, the worldwide communications of the internet and social media make it impossible to market a product in one region or country without the rest of the world knowing about it. And, it is a given that some percentage of the customer case outside of the targeted region is going to want a product that isn't available and feel "cheated" by not getting it, even if there isn't much of a market for it in their region.

In the old days, international companies could produce country-specific products and about the only way anyone knew about them was if they actually visited that country. Not the case anymore. Not trying to make any particular point about the EOS-M, just an observation about manufacturing and marketing in general.

The counter argument is that the people who are informed enough to care that the product line is not available in their market can always use the internet to import it for themselves. Not that I would advocate this strategy!

It strikes me that Canon has yet to decide whether it's a multinational or a global company. Currently, it seems that head office are happy for each territory to market whichever part of the product line sells locally. This (possibly) helps to make the company responsive to local conditions, but hardly sits well with creating a global brand.